The catalyst industry is a multi-billion dollar industry which continues to grow. Catalysts are used in virtually all chemical processes, including those used to make industrial chemicals, oil products and pharmaceuticals. A significant amount of catalysts are solid state materials containing a metal or a metal compound such as a metal oxide. A co-precipitation process is generally employed to manufacture such catalysts. Other metal based materials such as superconductors, solid state electrolytes and piezo-electric materials are formed in a similar manner using a co-precipitation process. The co-precipitation method, however, has the disadvantages of producing materials which are not exceptionally homogeneous and the reproducibility of the process is often poor.
As a result, there is a need for a process to synthesize such materials which is both easily reproducible and which provides solid state materials such as catalysts in a high state of phase purity.